The Aquamarine Empire Emperor had been overwhelmed with troubles lately.
The Crown Prince scandal that had suddenly erupted had caught the Emperor completely off guard.
What the Crown Prince scandal had exposed in turn also sent the Emperor into a rage.
The person in charge of the Shadow Guards had actually plotted against the Crown Prince!
The Shadow Guards were a group the Emperor considered his most loyal people.
Otherwise, how could they be entrusted with dirty work?
Then, what the investigation uncovered made the Emperor's expression change drastically.
The Shadow Guards had been infiltrated by others.
Those others included Great Nobles, as well as certain royal family members—Princes and princes.
Moreover, the Emperor discovered that the Soul Secret Method was not foolproof, because these people had to undergo unscheduled loyalty tests through the Soul Secret Method every year.
They had already found ways to evade those tests.
It made the Emperor grit his teeth in fury.
A Shadow Guard had been forced by his immediate superior to frame the Crown Prince!
Then that Shadow Guard had been threatened by the Crown Prince and by Great Nobles, forcing him to provide intelligence to both sides.
Then, unable to bear his superior's order to frame the Crown Prince, he had chosen to expose himself.
There was no logical flaw in that, but the Emperor spotted the problem at a glance.
If Lu En had truly been loyal to the royal family, he would never have chosen to expose the Crown Prince.
After all, the Crown Prince was also their young master—their future master.
That left only two possibilities. The first was that Lu En had been dissatisfied with the Crown Prince.
That thought made the Emperor's scalp tingle.
Because to the Emperor, Shadow Guards had to be unconditionally loyal to their